campaign cartographer 3 plus upgrade installation

So, don’t buy this software for world building unless you are comfortable with professional CAD tools - I know some of you are. My own efforts after an hour of tinkering were not so bad… Cartographers no more dump symbols onto the screen than we writers just type the stuff in our heads then hit “Upload to Amazon”. It takes talent, hard work and most of all practice. Me using Campaign Cartographer for my musings is like my mum using Scrivener for her shopping list.Ĭartography is like any other design skill. Whereas I’m thinking, “Rah mountains, rah dragon, rah road!”, professional cartographers are thinking, “Mountains must leave space for dragon and road, and mustn’t interfere with the text, and it has to look good”. It’s a feature if you are designing a map, rather than building a world. That granular fiddliness? …a prettier, less confusing interface, This software felt like the graphics equivalent of a typewriter, or perhaps FrameMaker.īut then I recalled my friend Andy Law who actually makes his living as a cartographer and I finally understood. You select your tool first, then the thing you want to tweak, and even drag and drop entails menus and mouse clicks.

That’s how I write, and how I want to worldbuild.Ĭampaign Cartographer just doesn’t lend itself to this way of working. I rough things out then refine them, tinkering with structure and detail until things are right. Like most writers, I am used to creating by iteration. The symbol sets and effects are still beautiful, and you can still make awesome maps It’s more stable, makes full use of the power of modern PCs, has a prettier, less confusing interface, a really very useful “verbose” tooltip that pops up when you use any tool, and smoother navigation.

The new version is certainly an improvement on the old (which, however, did as advertised). just like one of the dark lord’s minions walking into an ambush. So as I downloaded their not-inexpensive software, I was grinning happily to myself…. Just glancing at what people can do with is enough to take you to otherwhen places.

They have a massive suite of programs for designing things like dungeons, cities, star systems and starship.

They’ve been around since 1993 (so far back that I think Richard III was still on the throne) which says a lot. Though just a 3-person company, Profantasyare the behemoths of Fantasy cartography. When I snagged a pre-release review copy of Profantasy Campaign Cartographer 3 Plus, smugness quickly turned to irritation… then to understanding and respect. Just looking at it takes you places (click for bigger version).

Campaign cartographer 3 plus upgrade installation